By Business & Finance 
The latest figures on the Irish economy have prompted Ulster Bank to upgrade its assessment of the economy’s outlook for this year and next.
GDP growth of 5.2% is being witnessed this year, up from 3.9% at the time of the Bank’s last forecast in April, while growth of 4.5% is predicted or 2016.
This will result in a faster pace of jobs growth, which will average 2.8% this year and 2.7% next.
The Ulster Bank Irish Economic Outlook by chief economist Simon Barry predicts that the economy will generate an additional 100,000 net new jobs over this year and next, resulting in a further decline in the unemployment rate to 8.4%.
A strengthening recovery is also clearly evident in the public finances and Ireland will deliver a fifth consecutive year of fiscal outperformance in 2015.
Chinese macro-financial weakness is now the key near-term risk for the global economy, and is exerting a strongly negative influence over a range of areas of the financial markets.
